"I figured I'd find you all here."

Victor startled at the approaching golden eyes, then sighed, rising to his feet. "Where else would we go?"

"I don't know," Rescue stopped a few paces away, and her head piece flipped open. Sharp blue eyes met his, above sprinkled freckles on light skin. "A different underground bunker?" she smiled slightly.

Victor glanced back, toward the window. Ms. Marvel and Squirrel Girl had left through the water tube to trudge back home. Ette and Ivy slept against the glass, while Dante curled beside the stacked donut boxes, all empty.

"You kids did good today," Rescue folded her arms. "I was surprised."

Victor raised an eyebrow. "Maybe you should tell them when they wake up."

"I didn't know it'd only be you," she motioned to the three sleeping bodies. "Where are the other two?"

"Ms. Marvel and Squirrel Girl live in the city," he shrugged. "The rest of us don't have anywhere else."

"So you're take turns keeping watch while recovering after a big battle? Is that what this is? It's still afternoon, you know."

He shrugged. "This is less keeping watch, more like I wasn't tired yet. I have more practice than they do."

She nodded, foot tapping the concrete. "So that makes me curious about you, Victor. You keep dropping hints that you know more about the kree than the others, that you have more practice. What's your story? If I had to guess I'd say you were seventeen, but homeless seventeen-year-olds shouldn't be battling an alien race alone."

"I don't know how old I am exactly," he folded his arms. "I'm not from earth, so it wouldn't really matter if I told you how many years old I was on my home planet."

Her eyebrows rose slightly. "You're not from earth?" she studied him up and down. "My, I didn't expect that one."

"I was...recruited by the kree. I helped them for a while. That changed after I came to earth," he briefly glanced toward Dante.

"I never would've taken you as an off-worlder," Pepper said. "Are you human? Or some other race entirely?"

"Inhuman," he replied. "Passing for human, yes."

"Ah. I should've got that, with the name and all," she smiled briefly. "How did humans--and inhumans--get off Earth?"

He blinked. "That's assuming humans originated on Earth."

"Right," Pepper nodded, "of course. Silly me," she opened her mouth to continue, but hesitated.

"Don't ask me, I don't know where humans originally came from," Victor said, "or how the name inhumans came about. Maybe ancient humans used to be like the kree and built a galaxy-sprawling empire, then it collapsed. Maybe earth was part of that super-long-ago empire," he shrugged. "Who knows?"

She pursed her lips. "That's interesting to think about. I thought--I suppose most of earth thought--humans were native to this planet only, and that out there," she motioned vaguely overhead, "existed either nothing, or beings so strange we might never comprehend them," she sniffed. "The 'beings so strange' theory gained traction after an alien army tried to invade through a space portal a decade or so back," she held his gaze. "We might have to rethink that."

"I don't think that's a good idea," he muttered. "I'm perfectly content to blend in here, where no one has any reason to wonder if someone they see doesn't belong on their planet."

Pepper's gaze slid over to the sea wall. "With that spaceship crashing here, I worry people will get suspicious about anything strange. Especially the inhumans who started popping up only a few months before it," she sighed. "That's another reason you and your friends need this place to crash, isn't it?"

"It's worse than that," he shifted his weight, "the kree were trying to build an inhuman army to help subjugate the galaxy. More inhumans came off that ship than just us. Some of them believe the kree are right in their galactic conquest," he grimaced. "We tried to contain them but they escaped, and now that their ship's crashed..."

She rubbed her eyes. "They'll make trouble. And create more fuel for the anti-inhuman media. Got it."

He winced. "We want to--we can try to convince them to go back to their lives from before, but we have to locate them. And we already gave them one chance."

"I see..."

"So, in regards to us crashing here, Ivy was wondering," Victor hesitated. "She...wants this warehouse to be our base. More permanently. And all of us were hoping to salvage some of the wreckage, add some lights and walls and things around here..." Pepper lowered her arm from her head plate with a bearer-of-bad-news look to her face, and Victor slowly shut his mouth.

"This bunker," she said carefully, "stores most of Howard Stark's old projects. He was paranoid somebody would steal his work from where he lived in New York, so he built this place and hid his inventions down here. After he died, we expanded it, organized it, built a giant window staring into the bay..." she shook her head.

"And?"

Pepper sighed. "It's not my decision to make alone, is what I'm saying. Sorry."

"But there's plenty of room. We could move the cargo crates--"

She held up a hand, stopping him. "I know. I know you're in need of some place to stay, and for protecting the city you probably deserve it. But I can't make that decision alone."

Victor nodded slowly, stepping back. "Alright."

"I'll do my best. But I can't guarantee anything."

"Alright," he repeated. "I'll...let the others know when they wake up."

"And Victor?"

"What?"

"Even if it doesn't work out, I can help you guys figure out someplace else. If you want my help."

Victor stared. "Thanks. That's very...very nice--"

"That's what superheroes are for," she nodded, face plate sliding into place. "Or at least what they should be for. Don't think of it as something special," she turned, footsteps echoing away.

"I wouldn't know," Victor muttered to himself, sinking to the ground. "We don't exactly have superheroes where I come from."

***

Author note: enjoying the wholesome gay vibes with Victor and Dante, Ivy and Ette? And do you have any good ship names?